“Nothing that you have not given away will ever truly be yours” – Mother Teresa

On Sunday, 16th August, 2020. We celebrated #6monthsofcharity at STILL I RISE. It has been 6 months where the foundation has provided help for over 80 health cases, over 200 food support to various states, helping struggling students with their education and providing support for new business owners and startups.

While the foundation is posed to do more, we cannot do all without your support. You can support not just the foundation in reaching out and helping more people but in your day to day lives helping those around you in any way you can. That is the beauty of charity. You and I have something we can give not just financially but with the gifts we’ve been blessed with.

“ Still I Rise Foundation was borne out of the need to change the world one person at a time . To make people see a reason to smile , to assist people with no strings attached , to help heal the broken, put a smile on the faces of the downtrodden and make the world a better place….” – Mr C. Chiedu ( Founder – StillIrise Organisation )

The quote represents what this foundation stands for.  In light of this, these are 6 factual lessons we can learn about giving and charity from one of the truly great when it comes to being charitable – Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Mother Teresa was the founder of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity – a Roman Catholic congregation of women dedicated to helping the poor. Considered one of the 20th Century’s greatest humanitarians, she was canonized as Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

 

You must have heard the name and some of her works and if you have not, here is a brief biography on Saint Teresa

 

6 Factual lessons from the life of Saint Teresa of Calcutta

1. She was not born poor: Mother Teresa left her homeland in Ireland at the age of 18 to learn english and moved to India aged 19. While her life revolved around helping the poor and destitutes, you’d be surprised to know she was not from a poor background. Contrary to popular belief, her family was financially okay and owned two houses as at the time she left home.

 

2. Who she belonged to : Mother Teresa showed an example with her life that she was HUMAN before anything else. Her place of birth, where she stayed and how she treated others had nothing to do with their background, skin colour, race or beliefs. She lived her whole life in service of the less fortunate and the quote below demonstrates truly how she saw herself.

“By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, I am an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” – Mother teresa

 

3. She helped even without help: A story of Mother Teresa that has been told and holds true is that while teaching poor kids in Calcutta, She barely had any equipment or supplies. This did not stop her from teaching the kids to read and write and she accomplished this by writing in the dirt using wooden sticks.

 

4. Struggled with various illnesses: During her numerous humanitarian missions. She was known to suffer from different illnesses – from Pneumonia, Malaria and survived two heart attacks. She also broke her collarbone. These did not stop her from giving her best and helping the less fortunate.

 

5. Size doesn’t matter: Mother Teresa was described as small due to her stature, as she was extremely small and delicate ( 5ft which is the equivalent to 152 cm). This did not stop her from achieving so many great things in her life. During her lifetime, she received more than 120 honors and awards including the Nobel peace prize (1979) of which she donated all the money ( $192,000) to help the poor in india. She is the true definition of “small body, big engine” in her charitable ways.

 

6. Mother Teresa’s love for the “paradoxical commandment” by Dr. Kent M. Keith

Knowing that humans would never be satisfied, no matter how good you are, she wrote this poem (which has been attributed to Dr. kent) on the wall of her home in Calcutta and it says a lot that you and I can learn from.

 

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.